Home Made Turkish Delights 

What are Turkish delights? 

Turkish Delights are a delicious and popular sweet treat, enjoyed in many parts of the world, with a soft squishy centre and coated in sugar or chocolate; they’re incredibly more-ish!

Usually bought from a shop, these delights can seem a little complicated to make yourself, but are surprisingly easy to make at home with very few ingredients. We’ll walk you through how to make your own Turkish Delights with just a few simple steps.

The Ingredients You Need 

The base of this recipe is quite simple, as it only takes three ingredients to make the perfect Turkish Delight. You will need: cornstarch, sugar, and water. 

To give your treats an extra special flavor, you can add any variety of flavors or colors. These could include rosewater, orange blossom water, lemon juice, grape molasses, and more! For example, adding rosewater to the mix will create a beautiful pink hue and subtle flavor. Or adding pistachios will give it an interesting texture as well as a nutty taste. Feel free to experiment with different combinations for exciting results!

How To Make Perfect Turkish Delights Each Time 

Once you have gathered all the ingredients necessary for your homemade Turkish Delights, all that’s left is to get started on the cooking process! The steps & recipe below will help you create amazing sweet treats your guests will love. 

The following steps should help you create perfect treats each time:

1. In a medium-sized pot over low heat, combine cornstarch and sugar together until it forms a thick paste-like mixture. Then gradually add in water while stirring constantly until all ingredients are evenly combined and there are no lumps left in the mixture.
2. Increase heat slightly and bring the mixture up to boiling point while stirring constantly so that it doesn’t stick or burn onto the pot’s surface (this usually takes about 10 minutes). Once boiling point has been reached reduce heat back down to low setting and continue stirring for another 5 minutes until desired consistency is achieved (it should be thick but still pourable).
3. At this stage you can add any additional flavors or colors if desired (see above section for ideas) before pouring mixture into an oiled dish (or tray) lined with parchment paper/greaseproof paper – spread out mixture evenly before allowing it cool completely in room temperature for at least 2-3 hours before cutting into cubes/ rectangles or other shapes as desired before serving/enjoying!

Dark Chocolate Covered Turkish Delights

Marsdeh Prewer is an incredible food blogger, at home chef, and longtime LemonSalt customer who has laid out a deliciously simple recipe on her blog Saffron & Herbs, to make decadent Dark Chocolate Covered Turkish Delights at home. 

@Saffron_and_herbs

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 1 hr 30 mins

Total Time: 1 hr 45 mins

Servings: 36 chocolates

Author: Mersedeh Prewer (@Saffron_and_herbs)

Ingredients

Sugar Syrup

• 500 g caster sugar
• 500 ml water
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Cornflour Paste

• 80 g cornflour
• 300 ml water
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Flavour, Colour & Decorating

• 1 tsp vanilla paste or essence
• 1 to 2 tbsp rose water
• 2 to 3 drops pink food colouring
• 225 g dark chocolate (I use Lindt 51%)
• 50 g white chocolate buttons (I use milky bar buttons)

Instructions

Prepare your pan:

1. Grease a 6 x 6-inch pan with a little neutral-flavoured oil and line with cling film. Once lined, lightly oil the lining and set aside.

1. Pour sugar into saucepan, add water and lemon juice. Turn heat to low and stir until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Place a sugar thermometer in the saucepan and bring the mixture to 115 °C i.e. the softball stage. Stir frequently. Once you hit the correct temperature, turn heat off.

1. Mix cornflour, water and cream of tartar in a saucepan over medium heat until it forms a thick paste. Turn heat to low for the addition of sugar syrup.
2. Add Sugar Syrup to Cornflour Paste:
3. Pour sugar syrup in small batches to cornflour paste and whisk until fully incorporated with no lumps. Then switch to a wooden spoon to stir mixture. Increase heat to high until mixture starts to bubble, then reduce to low and let the mixture gently bubble for approximately 1 hour, stirring frequently throughout this whole process. The mixture will go from a pale to a deep golden colour. The mixture is ready when it leaves the sides of the pan, can be pulled into the middle and is thick enough to see a clear line when you draw a spoon through it. 

1. When the mixture is thick enough, add the vanilla essence, rose water and food colouring. Stir until fully incorporated. Turn off the heat. 

1. Pour mixture into the lined dish. Using the back of a spoon, spread the mixture into all corners of the dish. Leave uncovered somewhere dry to set overnight. 

1. Flip the Turkish Delight onto a slightly oiled chopping board and peel off the lining. Take a pizza cutter or knife and oil the blade with a little neutral-flavoured oil and cut the Turkish delight into equal strips (6 strips). Then cut the strips into squares (6 per strip). Once all squares have been cut, move on to preparing the melted chocolate.

1. Line a tray with baking parchment in preparation for the chocolate dipped Turkish Delights,
2. Fill a medium-sized saucepan about a quarter full with water and bring to a boil. Then lower heat to simmer. Place a heatproof bowl on top. Make sure it isn’t touching the water and that no steam can escape up the side of the bowl, which can let water droplets into the chocolate.
3. Break chocolate up into small, even pieces and add to the bowl. Simmer gently for 2–3 minutes, until most of the chocolate is melted, stirring a couple of times with a rubber spatula. Turn heat off and allow the chocolate to continue to melt slowly in the residual heat ( 3–5 minutes).

1. Using a fork, pick one Turkish Delight square up and place in the melted dark chocolate. Move it round with the fork to get fully coated. Lift out using the fork and tap against the edge of the bowl to shake off excess chocolate. Then place the chocolate covered Turkish Delight on the lined tray to set. Repeat process with all the remaining squares. It will take approximately 10 to 20 mins for the chocolate to set.
2. Melt White Chocolate and Decorate the Turkish Delights:
3. You can either use the same method to melt the white chocolate or use a microwave as it is a smaller amount of chocolate. Place the white chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 10 second increments, remove from microwave and stir, and then zap again, if required, in additional 10-second increments. Keep microwaving and stirring each time, until completely melted and smooth. Pour into a small piping bag and pipe thin lines on the Turkish Delight. Leave to set - approx 10 mins then they are ready to eat!

Enjoy Easy Turkish Delights

Making your own Turkish Delights at home is easy and fun when done right! With just three main ingredients - cornstarch, sugar, and water - plus any additional flavors or colors you desire added in later on during the cooking process, you can now easily whip up a batch of these delicious treats without having to leave your kitchen! So go ahead - get creative with different flavor combinations and discover what makes the perfect Turkish Delight for you! Have fun!